After Returning, My Abilities are Infinite

Episode 113. Scavenger (2)

The five Returnees.

The professionals named them ‘The Five Kings’.

‘They turned the Returnee Situation into a Major Disaster.’

They appeared in Daegu. The Association and the government were on high alert because of the Great Sage’s prophecy, so they acted swiftly, and the number of casualties was not that great.

But that didn’t mean they had a small impact. They were considered to be some of the most powerful Returnees. Hundreds of hunters were dispatched but couldn’t even scratch them, nor could they stop them from leaving at will.

‘If those bomb-like Returnees fall on Seoul……’

Just imagining it was horrible. If things went wrong, a crisis worse than what happened in my past life could occur.

“What are you doing? It takes at least an hour to get to Seoul. We’ve got to go right now.”

“…Just a minute.”

Listening to Lee Hyun-seung urge me, I took out my cell phone. There was no time to move by car. We had to call Sung Hyun-woo and go right now.

Fortunately, they’re not violent, so they won’t massacre people as soon as they return here. It was best to evacuate people quickly and then stop the Five Kings.

“H… Hello?”

I called Lee Jin-woo to summon Sung Hyun-woo, and thankfully he answered the phone even before it rang five times. I was about to tell Hyun-woo to pick me up. But….

-Good, you’re just in time. I think you should come here right away. Damn it, what the hell’s going on……!?

“…What is it? What’s going on there?”

Over the phone, I could hear Lee Jin-woo’s urgent voice.

-Five Returnees fell out of the sky all of a sudden! And then Seol Ah-rin went crazy when she saw them……. Oh, I don’t know. I’ll send Hyun-woo right away, so hurry…….

I broke out into a cold sweat. Right. Seol Ah-rin’s hospital was also in Seoul. She was vulnerable to the smallest stimuli, and if she met him… The situation was a ticking bomb.

My head started to ache. It was as if two large bombs were about to blow up at the same time.

“…Oh, sh—”

* * *

He couldn’t tell what happened. He couldn’t even explain properly. Lee Jin-woo looked at the disconnected phone for a minute, then kicked the crushed door away and left the broken car.

“Ugh…”!

His entire body hurt. Although he had been training hard, Lee Jin-woo was fundamentally a sniper whose primary focus was to attack. He couldn’t demonstrate his full ability in physical combat.

‘What happened…?’

The sky collapsed while he was driving. And five people suddenly dropped onto the road. Lee Jin-woo quickly turned the steering wheel, which forced the car into a guardrail, flipping it over.

Sung Hyun-woo reacted swiftly, so he was not seriously injured. But Lee Jin-woo’s body had already suffered some damage.

“Hyun-woo, are you okay?”

“Yes, but I think you should pay more attention over there…….”

Hearing this, Lee Jin-woo turned his head. And soon afterward, he frowned. Yes, they were the real problem.

“…You are a bold woman. What did you just say?”

The ‘Returnees’ that Jeong Si-woo had warned them about.

“I said get out of here. You’re hurting ordinary people. Don’t stand there like an idiot. Get lost.”

And she was standing right in front of them.

Seol Ah-rin, the Disaster we had already experienced.

The five Returnees and Seol Ah-rin were facing each other, and Lee Jin-woo gulped as if he didn’t know what to do.

“…You go get Si-woo. I have no idea how to stop them. I’ll try to buy some time, so bring him quickly!”

“You’re going to do it alone? How….”

“Just go!”

Lee Jin-woo shouted as he took a pistol out of his coat. Sung Hyun-woo looked at him, nodded, and used Teleportation. Now, only Lee Jin-woo was left standing in front of the broken car.

“Phew….”

Lee Jin-woo sighed deeply. Then he ran off the road, hid in a blind spot that wasn’t visible to the Returnees, and observed the situation.

“It took us years to return, and this is how we are treated? Hahaha! ‘Get lost’. I haven’t heard that in a long time.”

“I know, right? It feels awkward. Now that we’re back, we can even hear foul words. How exciting.”

The five men standing on the highway talked excitingly among themselves. They were treating Seol Ah-rin as if she were an interesting animal.

Lee Jin-woo swallowed at the sight. It was important to aim for one target to activate the effect of the First-strike Victory. But who the hell was he supposed to shoot? The five Returnees Jeong Si-woo strongly warned them of being dangerous, or…….

“Quit babbling among yourselves and get lost. I told you three times, and I won’t take it any longer!”

…Seol Ah-rin, whose temper has exploded?

Her face turned red, and she screamed. And, at that moment, a car approached the five Returnees from the back of the highway. It looked like the car had braked too late. It didn’t slow down properly and was about to hit the Returnees at high speed.

“Look, a car. It’s been a long time since I saw one. I tried so hard to make something similar in the other world, but it was difficult.”

The man wearing a hood tilted his head and waved his finger. And the speeding car began to break down, starting from the bumper. Like dandelion seeds that someone blew on, the parts and scraps scattered into the sky.

“……!”

The middle-aged man in the driver’s seat was the first to be seen. Next, a woman sitting next to him who looked like his wife, and a child in the back seat who looked barely past three.

They soared above the car parts that were disappearing into dust. Lee Jin-woo’s eyes widened. For a moment, he forgot that he had to hide in the blind spot and moved. But there was nothing he could do.

“No….”

His ability was like a sharp and powerful dagger, but it wasn’t the kind that could be used in this situation. He could break the shell of an overwhelming enemy and drive a blade in, but sometimes he was powerless to save people in peril.

“What are you doing–!”

But then, Seol Ah-rin shouted again, stamping her feet. At the same time, the concrete road fractured into pieces and rose into the air.

-The Great Legacy-

Parts of the car that scattered after turning into dust begin to reassemble again. The car’s original form that remains in Seol Ah-rin’s memory is being restored.

Car seats appeared, supporting the family falling from the air, and the broken car regained its shape. You could hear the sound of tires screeching. It all happened in a flash.

“……?”

Lee Jin-woo, who was reaching out his hand, stood still, looking embarrassed.

‘This isn’t a fight I should jump into.’

Both sides were powerful beyond measure. And according to Sung Hyun-woo, Seol Ah-rin was still very friendly to humankind due to the memory manipulation and her trauma.

Click. It was the sound of loading a gun. It looked like there was only one being that Lee Jin-woo needed to help.

‘I know you’re a very dangerous person, but… I trust my instinct.’

Lee Jin-woo looked at Seol Ah-rin and the five Returnees facing each other in the middle of the highway. He slowly raised his gun and pulled the trigger.

Baaang!

Lee Jin-woo’s body trembled at the strong rebound. A bullet powered by the explosion of gunpowder flew across the air. It was headed towards the man’s forehead who tried to destroy a car along with the family inside it.

“Whew, this is definitely Earth, but that power of yours….”

He seemed entirely off his guard as he continued to talk, oblivious to Lee Jin-woo’s bullet. In the meantime, the bullet pierced straight across the atmosphere. Crack! There was a sound of something breaking.

“……!”

Only then did the man turn his head. It was a barrier that the man had set up instinctively while living as a monarch in another world. An absolute defense that no one had penetrated since he reached a certain level of achievement. But that defense had just collapsed from a single blow.

“A… bullet?”

The man’s eyes spotted the metal bullet rotating fiercely. How could the barrier that not even weapons made of rare alien minerals could penetrate be broken by an object made of mere iron?

Doubt arose in the man’s mind. In the midst of that, the bullet was still faithfully moving forward.

Crash, crack!

The man’s prized barrier and defenses broke. The sound of thin glass breaking burst out.

What was that iron? What sort of bullet was that to break the advanced magic that he researched and developed for years? The man frowned. He could never stand his curiosity.

“How… Argh.”

As he was about to say something, the man’s head swung back. Everything happened in less than a second after the gunshot. The bullet landed right between the eyes.

Lee Jin-woo immediately hid inside the blind spot. A sniper was as good as dead the moment his location was revealed.

‘Something’s not right.’

Holding his breath, Lee Jin-woo examined the situation. Something felt wrong. Although he shot the bullet right into the head, there wasn’t a drop of blood. And the four Returnees standing nearby didn’t seem bewildered at all.

That can’t be. First-strike Victory had never let Lee Jin-woo down. As long as the attack was successful, he could take anyone’s life with a single blow.

“You are so clumsy. Have you become lazy since you left your artifacts behind? I can’t believe you allowed such an attack.”

One of the five Returnees simply remarked, looking at the man who was just shot. He sounded like someone who was disappointed that an adult was punched by a child.

The bigger surprise happened the next moment.

“I agree. Ouch, it hurts.”

The man, whose head was swung back, grabbed his head and twisted it into place, as if he was handling a doll. The bullet that struck his forehead fell to the floor with a clang. Then, he smiled as if nothing had happened.

“…What is that?”

Lee Jin-woo’s face hardened.

“Who is the cutie that shot this funny thing? I don’t think I’ll be satisfied until I find out who it is. Hahahahaha.”

The man laughed while he touched his head.

Thud. Thud.

The sound of heavy footsteps, too heavy to be human, rang in the air. Lee Jin-woo could hear his heart beat louder every time he felt the ground shake.

“Judging from the direction of the bullet, it must be….”

And then.

Claaaang!

That moment, gray rain poured down. The man wiped his smile off his face. Bastard swords, rapiers, axes, blunt weapons, gauntlets, short swords.

It was as if all existing weapons were there.

The man’s barrier and the blades of the weapons clashed violently. Sparks erupted, and the man was unable to move forward. He stood still and clicked his tongue. It meant that the overwhelming wave of weapons was threatening to him as well.

“I’m sorry I brought him a little late.”

Lee Jin-woo spun around when he heard Sung Hyun-woo’s voice from the back.

“You did well.”

Sung Hyun-woo was sweating profusely. Three men were standing next to him.

“We’ll help.”

Lee Hyun-seung, Jeong Si-woo, and Zhang Wei.

It was a trio that was unquestionably reassuring.

“Get up, Lee Jin-woo. We have to match them in numbers.”

Said Jeong Si-woo casually. And Lee Jin-woo suddenly found that he was no longer sweating. The terror he felt had vanished.

“Oh, yeah, you’re right.”

The real fight was about to begin.